"What is perhaps most striking about Leni Riefenstahl is that by now, more people may have seen films about her than have sat through her actual films. There have been no fewer than six documentaries to date, quite aside from the countless cameos in other documentaries and films about the Third Reich. She has been valorized and vilified in equal measure throughout her life."
"Tiefland was shot during the war and finished and released in West Germany in 1954, sparking lengthy and damaging lawsuits about claims made about the production. In a recording, Reifenstahl darkly disputes accusations made in an earlier documentary film and subsequent libel case, and betrays herself in one fell swoop exclaiming that, "I'm not saying Gypsies need to lie, but really, who's more likely to lie under oath: me or the Gypsies?""
Leni Riefenstahl achieved lasting fame as a technically and aesthetically influential filmmaker and photographer while remaining a deeply polarizing figure. She worked with prominent cultural figures through 2003 and inspired artists across generations. OSS officer Budd Schulberg found her morally defiant and willfully ignorant of Holocaust horrors during his 1945 encounter. Evidence connects Sinti and Romani extras in her film Tiefland to later murders at Auschwitz, and the film's production spawned lawsuits. Recordings reveal Riefenstahl disputing accusations and making dismissive remarks about Gypsies, displaying defensiveness and self-pity.
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